The present invention relates to a system or method for teaching, controlling or monitoring robots.
A commonly-assigned, pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/282,190 (and a corresponding British Application No. 8828944.2) shows a recent example of the industrial robot system. On the other hand, a Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 62-110581 shows a conventional example.
In conventional robot systems including the above-mentioned conventional example, and even in the above-mentioned recent example, it is very difficult and time-consuming to prepare teach data of all the robots of an assembly station for a variety of products. Furthermore, it is very difficult to observe internal conditions of the assembly station because of the obstruction by manipulators, workpieces and frame structures.
Recently, an off-line teaching technique (Nikkei Mechanical, 1986, Vol. 7-28, No. 224, pages 50-59, published by Nikkei McGraw-Hill Company) is becoming predominant in place of a conventional on-line teaching technique using teach pendant. In this new method, a motion program of a robot such as a positioning locator is prepared by selectively reading out necessary data from a data file of CAD (computer-aided design) which stores data about shapes and positions of workpieces such as vehicle body panels, and robots. However, this teaching method is still troublesome especially in an automobile assembly system which handles a variety of vehicle bodies with many robots.